| YEAR | MONTH | EVENT |
| 1919 | January | Paris Peace Conference convened in Versailles. Spartacists uprising in Berlin; leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg killed by right-wingers. "German Workers' Party" formed (renamed National Socialist Party in 1920). |
| | February | German National Assembly convenes; Weimar Republic formed. |
| | March | Establishment of Third International in Moscow. |
| | June 28 | Treaty of Versailles signed, including Covenant of the League of Nations; Germany disarmed and forced to pay heavy reparations and surrender territory. United States senate fails to ratify Treaty of Versailles; start of American isolationism. |
| 1920 | April | Russo-Polish War begins. |
| | July | Second Comintern Congress in Moscow lays plans for world revolution. |
| | October | Russo-Polish War ends with Polish victory and territorial gains. |
| | November | Last anti-Communist troops leave Russia. |
| 1921 | March | Italian Fascist Party formed. |
| | July | Adolf Hitler becomes Nazi Party chairman. |
| | October | Poland gains Silesia in defiance of pro-German plebiscite. |
| | November | Washington Naval Conference to fix interests of Pacific powers and levels of naval forces. |
| 1922 | | Hyperinflation begins in Germany. |
| | October 28 | Fascists under Benito Mussolini take power in Italy. |
| 1923 | January | France and Belgium occupy German Ruhr until 1925 over non-payment of reparations. |
| | September | General Primo de Rivera leads coup in Spain. |
| | November | Adolf Hitler leads abortive Beer Hall Putsch in Munich. German currency inflation stabilized. |
| 1924 | | US mediation produces Dawes Plan to settle reparations question. |
| 1925 | December | Locarno Treaties promise peaceful diplomacy in Europe. |
| 1926 | September | Germany joins League of Nations. |
| 1927 | | Tanaka Giichi becomes prime minister of Japan; "Tanaka memorandum" outlines expansionist policy endorsed by military. Allied Military Commission dissolved, supervision of German forces ends. |
| 1928 | August | Kellogg-Briand Pact renouncing war as a foreign policy instrument signed by 63 nations. |
| 1929 | October 23 | Wall Street Crash in US initiates Great Depression: massive worldwide economic crisis and unemployment foster political extremism. France begins construction of Maginot Line on German borders. |
| 1930 | January | Primo de Rivera resigns as leader of Spain. London Naval Conference keeps naval force limits on Japan. Last French troops leave Rhineland. |
| 1931 | April | Second Republic formed in Spain. |
| | September | Mukden Incident; on pretext of explosion at Mukden (Shenyang), Japanese army in Guangdong occupies Dongbei without government sanction; puppet state of Manchukuo established. |
| 1932 | | World Disarmament Conference in Geneva fails over demands of France (for security guarantees) and Germany (for equal treatment). |
| | July | Reichstag elections in Germany leaves Nazis as largest party. |
| 1933 | January | Adolf Hitler appointed chancellor of Germany. Franklin D. Roosevelt takes office as US president; begins New Deal. |
| | March | Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss suspends constitution in Austria. |
| | July | Vatican concludes Concordat with Nazis. |
| | October | Japan leaves League of Nations over protests against aggression in China; Germany also withdraws. Second World Disarmament Conference: Germany withdraws in October. |
| 1934 | June | Ernst Rohm and SA units of Nazi party purged ("Night of the Long Knives"). |
| | July 25 | Dollfuss killed in abortive Nazi coup. Japan cancels Washington Naval Agreement: arms race begins. German-Polish non-aggression pact. |
| 1935 | | Saarland votes to return from France to Germany. |
| | March | Conscription reintroduced in Germany. |
| | October | Italy invades Ethiopia. |
| 1936 | February | Popular Front wins elections in Spain. |
| | March | Germany remilitarizes Rhineland in defiance of Versailles Treaty. |
| | July | Revolt of forces under Francisco Franco begins Spanish Civil War. London Naval Conference: Japan withdraws from negotiations. |
| | November | Rome-Berlin Axis concluded between Germany and Italy. Formation of Popular Front government divides French society. Chiang Kai-Shek forced to create united front of Nationalist and Communist resistance against Japanese invasion of China. |
| 1937 | April | German bombers supporting Spanish Nationalists devastate Guernica. |
| | July | Marco Polo Bridge incident begins open war between Japan and China. Italy leaves League of Nations. |
| 1938 | March | Austrian Anchluss: Germany annexes Austria. |
| | April | British-Italian agreement recognizes Italian rule in Ethiopia. |
| | September | Munich Pact between Germany, Italy, France, and Great Britain yields Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia to Germany; high point of appeasement. |
| 1939 | March | German troops occupy the whole of Czechoslovakia. Spanish Nationalists occupy Madrid; Spanish Civil War ends. Poland refuses German demands for Danzig (Gdansk); Germany cancels non-aggression pacts. |
| | May | German-Italian alliance. |
| | August | Germany and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics sign non-aggression pact and secretly agree partitioning of Eastern Europe. |
| | September 1 | Germany invades Poland - start of World War II. |
